By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
21, updated
-- It was past
11 pm on
Friday night
but the UN
Commission
on the Status
of Women
had not
wrapped up its
work. At issue
was a line in
the Malawi
sponsored
resolution on
HIV and AIDS
about
encouraging
"delay of
sexual debut."
A reference to
reducing the
number of
partners had
already been
removed.
Update:
A Netherlands
amendment to
strip "delay
of sexual
debut" passed,
past 1 am, by
18 for, 13
against, 3
abstaining,
with a number
of non-voters:
Libya,
Jamaica,
Israel, Niger,
CAR, Cuba,
Gambia,
Lesotho and
Swaziland.
On the overall
HIV / AIDS
resolution,
many African
countries
removed their
sponsorship,
and asked for
a delay. But
it went
forward,
adopted 22
for, zero
against, 16
abstentions.
This is the
UN.
There
had been other
disputes, as
delegates told
Inner City
Press, about
reproductive
rights, family
diversity and
a new one:
sovereignty.
A Western
diplomat
complained to
Inner City
Press that
"the vast
majority of
countries
agree to the
language from
last year."
But of course
something
is different
this year:
Ukraine, and
Crimea. (Click
here for an
article on
Beacon Reader.)
A
pro-choice
Arab delegate
told Inner
City Press
that the
hard-liners on
reproductive
rights were Qatar,
which
sponsored a
stealth event
on Syria
earlier on
Friday,
covered here,
and Sudan.
Inner City
Press asked a
Sudanese
diplomat who
said no, its
position was
on behalf of
the African
Group.
The
original
source
scoffed, Sudan
wants to pick
up political
support on
Darfur and
Abyei by being
the lead on
this culture
war issue. And
perhaps it is
so: this is
the UN.
In the
house, or
basement
Conference
Room 3 in this
case, were
Permanent
Representatives
from such
countries and
Norway and
Switzerland,
the
Philippines
and Egypt.
There was the
deputy of
Nigeria,
usually
upstairs in
the Security
Council, and a
young delegate
from South
Sudan.
It was
a classic and
telling UN
moment,
including the
fact that the
scribes of the
UN
Correspondents
Association,
whose
president
Pamela Falk
and sidekick Evelyn
Leopold
repeatedly demanded the
first question
this month
about the CSW,
were nowhere
to be seen.
There were
hard working
internal
journalists,
including a
"Green P" --
non resident
-- and one
resident
correspondent
from Egypt.
There was a
single wire
service
reporter who
believes in
the issue.
There was
Inner City
Press, and
there was the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
This is how
and where the
real work of
the UN gets
done. But the
scams and
censorship
continues
upstairs.
Watch this
site.
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